Classroom Resources | Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard LessonCut up, Cover up, and Come Away with Ideas for Writing!
Students rework their forgotten/abandoned drafts by cutting and covering up selected words. By creatively manipulating text, they explore portal writing, a strategy for envisioning a new story or story direction.

Classroom Resources | Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | UnitExamining Island of the Blue Dolphins through a Literary Lens
After a discussion about courage and adversity and reading Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins, students examine Karana's character development and look for examples of courage in their community.

Classroom Resources | Grades 6 – 12 | Mobile App | Learning About LanguageRWT Word Matrix
Explore the similarities and differences among words typically considered synonyms with this mobile app that allows middle- and secondary-level students organize groups of words by connotation on one axis and by register on another.

Classroom Resources | Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard LessonSupporting Vocabulary Development with EASE
This lesson allows teachers to enrich students' oral and written vocabulary using the EASE sequence of instruction: Enunciate, Associate, Synthesize, and Emphasize the words you want students to use.

Classroom Resources | Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard LessonThe Magnetism of Language: Parts of Speech, Poetry, and Word Play
What wonderful ways words work! The parts of speech are the highlight of this lesson in which students identify parts of speech in a nonsensical poem and then create their own wild and wacky rhymes.